The present invention relates to a guided beam flat display device having a unitary beam guide assembly, and particularly to such a device of a construction which permits the beam guide assembly to be quickly and accurately mounted in the device.
There has been developed a flat display device which includes an evacuated envelope including substantially flat, spaced front and back walls and spaced, parallel support walls extending between the front and back walls. The support walls form a plurality of parallel channels extending across the front and back walls. A gun structure extends across one end of the channels and is adapted to generate electrons and direct the electrons as beams into the channels. In each of the channels is at least one beam guide which confines the electrons in the beam as they flow along the channels but which permits the beam to be deflected toward a phosphor screen on the surface of the front wall at a plurality of points along the channel. Such a display device is described in the copending application for U.S. Patent of T. O. Stanley, Ser. No. 607,492, filed Aug. 25, 1975, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,031,427; June 21, 1977, entitled "Flat Electron Beam Addressed Device". This type of display device will be generally referred to as a "guided beam display device".
One type of beam guide which has been developed for use in a guided beam display device includes a pair of spaced, parallel plates extending transversely across and longitudinally along the channels in closely spaced relation to the back wall. The plates have a plurality of openings therethrough which are arranged in rows both longitudinally along and transversely across the plates. The openings in one of the plates are in alignment with the openings in the other plate. Each longitudinal row of openings is a separate beam guide. On the inner surface of the back wall are a plurality of spaced, parallel conductors which extend transversely across the channels. Each of the conductors extends along a separate transverse row of the openings in the plates. This beam guide and its operation is described in the copending application for U.S. Pat. Of W. W. Siekanowicz et al, Ser. No. 671,358, filed Mar. 29, 1976, entitled "Flat Display Device With Beam Guide".
In the copending application for U.S. Letters Patent of C. H. Anderson et al, Ser. No. 615,353, filed Sept. 22, 1975, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,028,582, June 7, 1977, entitled "Guided Beam Flat Display Device" there is shown and described a type of the guided beam flat display device in which there are three beams in each channel and at each point that the beams are deflected out of their focusing guides towards the phosphor screen the beams are simultaneously deflected transversely across the channels to scan the screen across the entire lateral dimension of the channel. This display device includes two spaced parallel grids between the focusing guides and the phosphor screen. One of the grids is for focusing the cross sectional area of the beams and the other grid is for accelerating the beams toward the phosphor screen. This type of the guided beam display device will be referred to as a "modular guided beam display device".
For the commercial production of a modular guided beam display device it is desirable to be able to quickly and easily assemble the various elements of the device with high precision, particularly the focusing guide and the focusing and accelerating grids. In the copending application for U.S. Patent of Z. M. Andrevski, Ser. No. 775,300, filed March 7, 1977, entitled "Flat Display Device With Beam Guide", there is shown and described a unitary assembly of the focusing guide and focusing and accelerating grids which can be slid into one end of each of the channels. Although this assembly greatly simplifies the assembling of the display device, it still has problems with regard to inserting the assembly with precision of alignment in the channel.